Four short links: 12 January 2010

Navigating Discussions, Sensing The World, Patent Trolls, and Privacy Power

Tldr — an application for navigating through large-scale online discussions. The application visualizes structures and patterns within ongoing conversations to let the user browse to content of most interest. In addition to visual overviews, it also incorporates features such as thread summarization, non-linear navigation, multi-dimensional filtering, and various other features that improve the experience of participating in large-discussions.

City Senses — Chris Heathcote points out that Pachube can be used as a sensor for the world, not just for energy. His pilot projects are good, and I’d like to see more. The biggest change I’m predicting for the next 10 years is the rise of sensor networks: smart stuff, aware environments, and loquacious locations.

Anopticon — Italian project to document the location of CCTV cameras, many of which were set up illegally. The site is in Italian, but there’s some information on this article in The Register. Information is power, and this is a clever way for citizens to regain power in the privacy war. (via Nicholas Clark)